Tag Archives: LG

We’ve been swooning over the LG Chocolate since it appeared in this month’s Hot Stuff, so we’re pleased to announce that it will be available mid-October (just in time for Gitex). The sleek black touchscreen mobile has a 4in 21:9 widescreen, making it perfect for web-browsing and movies, a 5MP camera on the back and can even be split into two halves, letting you multi-task (live film-tweeting, anyone?) on-the-go. It’s priced at US$815.

The original Viewty was great. A solid touchscreen phone with a fantastic camera, and haptics that manufacturers still have trouble matching. So when we got wind of the latest Viewty Smart, we danced a little mobile-inspired jig. Rocking the same LG 3D user interface seen on the Arena, its got a gorgeous 8MP camera, complete with LED flash and ISO up to 1600, and a slick 3in WVGA touchscreen. It also comes packing Wi-Fi, GPS, DivX support, and is compatible with 32GB MicroSD. Watch out for a full review as soon as we find one.

Look at the latest launches from the CTIA mobile show, and you’ll see a trend developing. The talk’s all about touch and QWERTY keypads, with hardly any mention of alphanumeric keys. The way people use their mobiles has started to affect design. The organisers at CTIA claim subscribers sent over one trillion texts in 2007, triple the volume of the previous year. NPD Group claims a third of US phones now have full alphabet keypads (thanks to BlackBerry, no doubt) and the show stands have barely got two standard keypads to rub together. The rise of text-based communication (via SMS, web and email) means the future of interfaces is touchscreen or QWERTY. It seems there’s no room left for the regular keypad anymore.

Jumping aboard the good ship portable, LG has just launched the HS102. Weighing in at just 780g, the pint-sized projector is only 50mm thick. Beneath its trim figure lies the latest in DLP technology, with an LED lightsource providing over 30,000 hours of lamp life. LG claim it projects screens up to 80in, but you should probably stick to between 30-40in for the sake of clarity. The whole thing will cost you around the US$800 mark. It’s hardly as pocketable as Optoma’s Pico, but if you’re after quality on-the-go, it’s well worth a look.

The marketing boys over at LG have decided to rebrand the KP500 range, previously called Cookie. Obviously wanting a sharper and more memorable name, they thought long and hard in LG’s crisis boardroom. After three days of brainstorming, no sleep and mamoth amounts of coffee, they finally had it: Cooky. Of course! So new, so different, so cutting-edge.

#5 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
The Finnish mobile giant’s moved into touchscreen territory with this mid-range music maestro. Super simple Nokia controls and S60 interface are a pleasure as usual. Sadly though, the 3.2 screen is just that, mid-range. Unresponsive and sluggish at times, it’s useful without the stylus so long as you’re not browsing the web.

#4 LG Prada II

The old Prada featured multi-touch (a feature many handsets still haven’t mastered) so we had high hopes for its younger brother. It doesn’t need stylus back-up as the improved interface and intuitive menus are highly receptive to strokes and prods, and snapping the 5MP cam via touch is a nice feature.

#3 Apple iPhone
What’s this? Apple’s famed mobile not sitting smugly at number one? That’s right, the iPhone’s been around for ages and is ready for a much needed tune-up, if you ask us. Still, the 3.5in capacitive screen does multi-touch very well, and the onscreen QWERTY still can’t be beat.

#2 T-Mobile G1
Its open source Android operating system makes the most of the capacitive touchscreen, and it’s the most fluid and responsive of the bunch. Intuitive menus will please your fingers, but the QWERTY keypad and trackball are unnecessary and just add bulk to the device.

#1 HTC Touch HD

We’ve got to hand it to HTC, its skinned Windows Mobile OS works with the enormous touchscreen beautifully. The WVGA widescreen makes video playback easy on the eyes, while the phone’s intuitive controls coupled with its Opera Mobile 9.5 browser,will have mobile internet users jumping for joy.

Enough with the iPhone already! This week we’ve seen a flurry of rumour, speculation and furious fanboys, all hinting or hoping for Apple’s finest to arrive. Well, it’s coming. Caught up in the hype, has it been forgotten that the iPhone 3G is 8 months old, that it is widely available (albeit from the lucrative grey market), and that it works with Etisalat’s existing data plans? With no iTunes Music Store in the region, the chances of a fully-fledged iPhone App store appearing in the next couple of weeks are slim. That means you’ll be stuck with the basic version currently available, unless you don’t mind registering your iTunes account to another country.

Instead, let’s take a look at some svelte and strokeable touchphones worth getting excited about. The tech boffins at Toshiba have announced the TG01 (pictured above). Its 4.1in QVGA screen, microSD support, DivX and Flash player put the iPhone to shame, while its slender 9.9mm shell makes it thinner too. Samsung’s newest Omnia i900 has been leaked ahead of Mobile World Congress, bringing you an Apple beating 3.2MP camera, GPS and FM radio. This time it’ll also pack 16GB of internal memory, easily expandable via microSD. Also spotted is LG’s latest, the Arena KM900. Supposedly sporting a new 3D interface, it’ll have a 5MP camera, GPS and DVD quality video capture.

The best part? These phones won’t require a registration or unlocking code.